The latest episode of victimization thanks to AB 109 took place this past weekend with the arrest of a 32-year-old repeat criminal Jack Albert Davis for the brutal kidnap and beating of his girlfriend. The crime was discovered when the battered victim was able to free herself and call for help.

 

Thanks to AB 109, Davis was not sent back to prison when he violated probation in March and June of this year despite a lengthy adult criminal history that began when he turned eighteen. Instead, he was on Post Community Release Supervision for his latest felony conviction and only served ten days in custody, i.e., "flash incarceration" for his violations. Before AB 109, parole violations would have resulted in Davis being held without bail pending a parole hearing and facing up to one year in custody for violating parole. 

 

The killer of Whittier Police Officer Keith Boyer also was back on the streets and able to commit his crime thanks to AB 109, with repeated "flash incarcerations" replacing a trip back to state prison for one year for his repeated parole violations. Under AB 109, if a parole violation is even pursued, the incarceration sanction is limited to no more than six months in local jail with parole violations decided by a local judge instead of in a Board of Parole Hearing. Of course, that punishment can only occur if local probation officers are able to locate AB 109 parole violators. The Los Angeles County Probation Department lists page after page of their " Most Wanted " and pointedly notes they are all on AB 109 parole.

 

Criminal "reformers" continue to tout "rehabilitation" instead of incarceration as an answer to crime, even though " there is little evidence that rehabilitation works ." Now, however, they have supplemented this push by heading straight for the bottom line, pushing legislation such as AB 109  or initiatives such as Prop 47 and 57 to drastically cut the amount of time a criminal must serve for his crime. These efforts are what led to the laughable ten day "flash incarceration" idea as if a few days in jail would deter career criminals such as Davis or the murderer of Officer Boyer.

 

A National Center for Policy Analysis study of the failure of rehabilitation alternatives concluded with the admonition that "What criminals need most is evidence that their crimes do not pay," and that society had a choice between deterrence via incarceration or a higher crime rate. Those words remain true today.

The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS) is the collective bargaining agent representing more than 7,900 deputy sheriffs and district attorney investigators working in Los Angeles County.  Like our Facebook page www.facebook.com/aladsonline